The Monta Vista High School community was outraged when we learned that the name of one of our students in our yearbook had been altered by a fellow student. The yearbook staff takes great pride in crafting the yearbook and they are devastated by this mistake. Most regrettably, our knowledge of the name change occurred after the 1,500 yearbooks had been distributed to our students. Several different options to right this wrong were considered, including republishing the yearbooks. However, because students' yearbooks already contained many signatures and sentiments from their classmates we instead ordered labels with the accurate spelling. We have asked students to return to school so that staff members can apply a label to correct their yearbook. Each student deserves to have their name accurately represented. We do not and will not tolerate slurs of any kind. At Monta Vista High School, we stand together.

April Scott

Principal Monta Vista High School

School should respond strongly, immediately

"Yearbook trouble isn't new" (Page 1A, June 11) minimizes a clearly offensive racial slur. Whether the intention was a joke in poor taste or an attack of his classmate is irrelevant. The Fremont Union High School District has the obligation to respond strongly and immediately. The school district should demonstrate unequivocally a zero tolerance for any attack -- inadvertent or otherwise. The article indicates there is a plan to educate students about avoiding bigotry. It seems the more appropriate approach is to require all students, teachers and staff attend training to gain an appreciation for our differences with the objective of ensuring tolerance. Excusing the failure to recall the yearbooks because of the cost of students upset in losing special inscriptions implicitly condones unacceptable behavior and should be reconsidered. It's not OK to malign Jews.

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Judy Player

Sunnyvale

Attending area schools can cut student loans

Esther Cepeda's column (Opinion, June 12) was spot on regarding student loan debt. If finances are an issue, attending your local junior college and then local state college while living at home can drastically reduce college expenses. Attending out-of-state private schools on loans is a very expensive way to obtain an education. Having a top-tier college on your resume may help the graduate land their first interview, but after that it's up to them and their performance in the workplace. Having had two daughters attend San Jose State University with both securing good, well-paying jobs in high tech, it doesn't seem that employers require top-tier schools for jobs.

Kathy Furtado

Campbell

K-12 teacher tenure protects innovation

Unfortunately, reader Pat Waite (Letters, June 12) doesn't seem to understand what actually goes on in public schools when he writes, "Tenure makes no sense in K-12 institutions where teachers simply regurgitate a curriculum determined by bureaucrats ..."

Tenure is one of the only bulwarks to prevent that dystopian view of education from becoming a reality. Every classroom really is a research lab; where experts in the field try to apply best-practice and research-based stratagems to an environment dominated by ever-changing variables in order to find the best way to accomplish the singular goal of educating our children. If teachers do not have the freedom to innovate, to speak out against mandated policies and practices that they see harming their students, to advocate for their students without risk of being fired (unless their classroom performance warrants it), that's when education becomes what Pat Waite believes it already is, and that is not what our children deserve.

Stephen P. Smith

High School Teacher San Jose

City Council pot vote helps young people

I would like to thank the San Jose City Council for it's recent vote to limit and restrict locations of pot shops. As the parent of a son who has been addicted to marijuana for many years and was doing well abstaining from using until a recent visit back to San Jose, where on many streets in our downtown area there are at least one and sometimes more of these shops, he resumed this dangerous habit that causes him to be lethargic, hungry and, at times, violent. Know that you may be sparing many of our young people from a life of lost opportunities to learn and succeed.

I was recently at the memorial for former Mayor Janet Gray Hayes and hearing about how much she cared for San Jose and each of its residents. I know that she would never want her beloved city to loose it's potential for greatness to this habit-forming substance.